Arts & Culture

In conversation with Panti Bliss When the Marriage Equality referendum passed in May of 2015, Ireland’s dearest drag queen Panti Bliss took her place on the podium at Dublin Castle. Standing alongside Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and the then-Minister for Justice Francis Fitzgerald, she addressed the emotional crowd. Rory O’Neill’s alter ego, Panti, who had always been in the peripheral vision of the Irish people, was now front and centre having played a hugely important role in the Yes campaign. I don’t think Dubliners accept anyone as a Dubliner, unless they were born here. Today, Panti performs all over the world, but

‘Do you know the Five Lamps?’ If you’ve heard this question before - and been foolish enough to answer in the affirmative - you’ll know not to answer it again. Essentially it’s a peculiarly Dublin way to tell someone to shut-up or to feck-off: ‘Do you know the Five Lamps? Well go hang your bollox off them!’. No one actually knows how this old saying originated. Well, how could they? But hats off to whichever Dublin wit it was who came up with it. Now it’s part of inner city Dublin culture. The lamps in question are in Dublin’s North Strand area, situated at the junction of five streets: Portland Row, North Strand Road, Seville Place, Amiens Street and Killarney Street. There it is, sitting an island in the middle of the road: a decorative five-branched lamp-post.

This library has more than just books as residents… Marsh’s library is located behind Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s Ireland’s oldest public library. Inside, the library is, for the most part, untouched, remaining beautiful. Marsh’s Library is one of the very few 18th century buildings left in Dublin that is still being used for its original purpose. It’s made up of two long galleries, joined by a small reading room. Books are shelved in bays on either side of the gallery. The interior of the library has elegant dark oak bookcases filled with old books. Bookcases are complete with rolling ladders and walking through the gallery almost feels like a journey throu

Sweny’s: A literary landmark frozen in time Tucked away on Lincoln Place, in the heart of Dublin’s south inner city, is Sweny’s pharmacy. 100 years ago, it was made famous by James Joyce’s Ulysses. Though Sweny’s is no longer a working pharmacy, it is a key part of Dublin’s literary culture. Today, it is run by volunteers who maintain its original 1850s Victorian style. A mahogany counter and old glass cabinets outline the room. Shelves of medicine cover the walls and old photographs sit in the cabinets. There’s even some hundred-year-old prescriptions still waiting to be collected. The original chemist sign is still intact too

Guinness has long been part of Dublin’s history and it’s not just the drinking of the black stuff that we’re talking about either. There’s all the industry and activity that surrounds its brewing and its distribution too – and all the memories that are associated with them. Up to 1961, for instance, the barges transporting wooden casks of Guinness along the Liffey would have been a familiar sight. In those days, of course, the Liffey did more than just divide the city in two. It was a major thoroughfare as well. There were six Guinness barges, each named after a Dublin suburban locality: Castleknock, Killiney, Sandyford, Howth, Clonsilla and Seapoint. The bargeme